WTF Research: Where You Drink Apparently Determines Partner Violence

Sorry, researchers, but your abuse prevention idea is really lame.

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Violence against your significant other is never okay, no matter the context or situation, whether you're a guy or a girl.

But, obviously, domestic and dating violence do happen, with one in three women suffering from abuse in their lifetimes and as many as 40 percent of victims of partner violence being men.

And because alcohol use can increase relationship violence, researchers from the Prevention Research Center in California and Arizona State University decided to survey more than 1,500 California couples to understand where they drink and how it affects their behavior toward their spouses. They found two interesting correlations: One between men drinking in bars and at parties away from home and increased male-to-female violence and another link between men drinking at home and increased female-to-male violence.

These findings, researchers say, "could reduce violence against spouses and partners by encouraging people in risky relationships to avoid drinking in certain contexts," which they think would be more effective than simply telling aggressive spouses not to drink at all.

But doesn't this abuse-prevention advice kind of miss the point?

Sure, the correlations found in this research are interesting in a good-to-know kind of way. And, of course, anything that can be done to prevent violence and educate both men and women about it is a step toward lowering those aforementioned statistics.

Though, how does telling people not to drink in certain situtions actually solve the issue here? According to these findings, men in abusive relationships shouldn't relax with a beer at home after work, for fear of being accosted. And women in similar situations should worry if their partners go out for drinks with the guys, lest they come home filled with aggression.

So, here's an idea for actually preventing abuse: Instead of telling abusive people where and when to drink — or not — let's focus on helping victims of these abusers get out of these relationships altogether. Or at the very least counseling abusers to stop, you know, being abusive.

If you or someone you know is a victim of abuse, resources can be found on RAINN's website.